The upgrade will put Virgin Media ahead of rival ADSL broadband offerings. The current maximum broadband speed is 16Mbit/s over a standard ADSL connection. Virgin Media said it has already trialed the 20Mbit/s service among selected users.

"Cable has inbuilt advantages in the quality of broadband service that we offer," the company said in its financial results statement .

"Customers can receive consistent speeds and a top speed of 10MB is available throughout our broadband addressable areas. We will be increasing this to 20MB in June and we are also currently conducting a residential trial of a 50MB broadband service."

Alongside the announcement of increased broadband speeds, Virgin Media said it made a £122 million loss for its fourth quarter, and lost 37,000 customers.

Virgin Media today lost a number of popular TV channels provided by BSkyB after failing to successfully renegotiate BSkyB's contract.